Women in the Workplace 2024 – The 10th Anniversary Report – Barriers and Challenges Persist– Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1011

Women in the Workplace 2024 – The 10th Anniversary Report – Barriers and Challenges Persist– Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1011

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1011 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: Johnniel Danao

Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova

Credit: Yan Krukau

Women in the workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. The study was launched in 2015 by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co.; current report is the 10th anniversary report. [Link to full text at the end].

I had presented the positive developments that had been reported by the study participants. In this part, we look at the barriers and challenges which persist and continue to stall the progress of women in the workplace.

Perception vs Reality

9 in 10 senior level men think that women’s opportunities to advance their careers have increased, but only 1 in 10 observe that microaggressions against women continue in the workplace. 

Despite reported progress, there are clear signs that more needs to be done. Employees universally agree that there has been less progress in how organizations handle microaggressions.

A Black woman, working as senior manager, put it aptly. “We are in a moment for women, for people with traditionally marginalized identities, for so many different people where we have settled for small, incremental steps and called them progress, instead of the large overarching, wholesale changes that we need to make”. 

A Southeast Asian woman manager highlighted another important issue. “The best thing companies can do for mothers is have a very clear maternity leave benefit and support flexibility. It’s just not fair for women to feel like they need to make a trade-off between taking care of their kids and going to work.”

Organizations vs Employees

Though organizations are showing commitment and trying to make progress, the same is not going down at the employee level.

Gender and racial diversity are both a higher priority for women than men, underscoring the importance and need of engaging men in efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Younger women are more likely to say that gender and racial diversity are high priorities to them, while younger men are least likely – and this gap is widening.

“The biggest barrier is will. I don’t know that we have the will to make overarching changes to the way that we view the workplace because the status quo is working for a bunch of people. Unfortunately, not many of those people are women or people with traditionally marginalized identities.”

Despite an increase in women’s representation and expanded company efforts, the workplace has not gotten better for women. Women continue to worry it will be harder for them to advance, and their day-to-day interactions look largely like they did in 2015. In fact, this stands out as the area of least progress across the 10 years of this study.

Today, women are just as likely as in the past to think their gender will limit their opportunities to advance. The next generation of women leaders are even less optimistic: in addition to feeling more disadvantaged by their gender or race, younger women are most likely to experience ageism. Women’s concerns stem from what they’re up against. Women are not getting enough support from their managers. They are still far more likely than men to face bias that calls their abilities and leadership potential into question. Women of color, and women with disabilities stand out for experiencing more demeaning interactions at work.

In the face of all this, women still remain highly ambitious—and as ambitious as men. Now companies need to invest more deeply in changing the culture of work, so women get the respect, support, and advocacy they need to go as far as they can.

Ageism and Other Gender-related Issues

It is generally considered that ageism – or unfair treatment based on a person’s age, predominantly affects older workers. In reality, it is most pronounced for younger women. Older workers are also impacted, but it is similar for women and men. A quarter of women under 30 say that their coworkers have called attention to their age unnecessarily.

“I’ve felt like I can’t voice myself because of my age. It’s assumed that you won’t have a good idea, or they won’t take your idea seriously. Or you’ll say something, and next week, somebody says the same idea—but they’re much older and have been with the company much longer.”

Managers play a central role in women’s career advancement and daily work experiences. Yet less than half of women report getting help advancing or navigating work challenges from their managers. Given that employees with consistent manager support are more likely to be promoted, this puts women at serious disadvantage.

Pakistani managers do not carry a balanced behavior towards women, because they treat them as ‘Women’ and not as ‘Staff’. Either the managers tilt too much towards women, all of them or selectively, or they treat all of them shabbily because they believe women cannot or should not work.

Women are far more likely than men to deal with comments and actions that undermine their skills and expertise, such as having their judgment questioned. And this has not improved over time. These everyday forms of disrespect, make it harder for women to speak up, take risks, and surface concerns at work.

Women still do far more housework than men. Today, roughly 4 in 10 women with partners say they are responsible for most or all the housework—the same as in 2016. 

Microaggressions and Sexual Harassment

Women today are just as likely to experience othering microaggressions as they were five years ago, which can erode their sense of belonging and make it harder to bring their whole selves to work.

Microaggressions take a heavy toll. Women who experience them are more likely to feel burned out and consider leaving their company, and less likely to view their workplace as equitable. By leaving microaggressions unchecked, companies miss out on everything women have to offer and risk losing talented employees. 

Sexual harassment remains common in the workplace. Roughly 4 in 10 women have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their careers, from hearing sexist jokes to having obscene or sexually explicit comments directed at them. Notably, younger women, who have much shorter tenures, are just as likely as older women to have experienced some form of sexual harassment over the course of their career—a sign that it is not becoming any less common. In addition, women are significantly less confident in their company’s handling of sexual harassment claims. In 2024, 14% women experienced a form of sexual coercion, such as being pressured to engage in an unwanted sexual relationship or touched in a sexual way without consent.

Sum Up

The pace of progress towards making workplaces safer, inclusive, and encouraging for women is slow and uneven. In some cases, progress is reversed as well. The overall situation is not promising.

As more and more women join workforce in all countries, a very strong movement is needed to achieve these objectives. Looks like ultimately women themselves have to take action rather than waiting for them. 

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets. 

Reference:

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace#/